Decolonization Models for America’s Last Colony: Puerto Rico

The Thirty-Eighth Parallel and Commonwealth Status

239 The Thirty-Eighth Parallel and Commonwealth Status August 25, 2011 The Thirty-Eighth Parallel on the Korean Peninsula and the status of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have something in common: both are relics of the Cold War. The Thirty-Eighth Parallel on the Korean Peninsula is the dividing line between (Communist) North Korea and (capitalist) South Korea. When the Second World War ended in 1945, Japan lost the Korean colony it had held since 1910, and the Soviets and the Americans forced the division of the country into two states. The division caused a war. In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea and managed to occupy Seoul and practically all of South Korea. The Korean War turned the Cold War into a “hot” one and extended its perimeter from Europe into Asia. More than 60,000 Puerto Ricans participated in the war, and 764 of them died. The participation of the Puerto Rican soldiers was worthy and brave. However, the arbitrary elimination of the Sixty-Fifth Infantry Regiment , the unfair court-martial proceedings brought against Puerto Rican soldiers, and the participation of Puerto Rico’s legal representative, Abe Fortas, and the Muñoz-Marín administration in that process constitute a rather dishonorable chapter in the history of the governments of Puerto Rico and the United States. Chinese troops with massive Soviet military support managed to help North Korea stop the advances of the United Nations troops under the leadership of the legendary General Douglas MacArthur. 240  Newspaper Columns For the armistice negotiated in 1953, both sides returned to the ThirtyEighth Parallel and established a demilitarized zone. That zone, designed for military containment, remains hostile territory and unpopulated. It measures 4 kilometers in width by 238 kilometers in length. In the middle of this zone lies Panmunjom, where the armistice was signed (the peace treaty has still not been signed). The zone is strictly regulated ; taking photographs is prohibited; and there is a high level of tension . To visit the zone is to enter a scene from the Cold War. The zone is administered by soldiers of the United Nations, North Korea, and South Korea, separated from each other by only a few meters, who keep a watchful eye on one another constantly as if at any moment the conflict might start once again. It is like entering a time capsule. Contrary to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin, which is testimony to the division of Berlin during the Cold War, Panmunjom is a dramatic representation of past reality made present, although the Cold War has ended, the Soviet Union no longer exists, and China owns the largest percent of the US public debt. This Asian relic of the Cold War resembles Puerto Rico’s current status , which is frozen in the 1950s. The US Navy promoted commonwealth status as part of a military strategy of the Cold War and to pretend that the United States was in compliance with the Atlantic Charter, which supported decolonization, in light of which it was unacceptable to maintain a classical colony such as Puerto Rico. The Popular Democratic Party administration [in Puerto Rico] developed the new variation on a colony and attained extraordinary economic and social development, but at the cost of generating a high degree of dependency on the colonial power. The difference between Korea and Puerto Rico is that the first knows that its final destiny is the union of its two states, as happened with Germany and Vietnam. They already have a modern train station in the demilitarized zone, Dorasan, ready to connect the two countries once China and the United States decide to end the conflict. In the case of Puerto Rico, because it is not a priority for the colonial power, we are limited to fantasizing about a supposed pact, which Thirty-Eighth Parallel and Commonwealth Status  241 Congress and the White House completely disregard, and statehood, which the the United States does not want. Meanwhile, the country continues in a free-fall, controlled by two political parties whose goal is to win elections and control the government budget. ...